It's been a wild few days for standout Auburn basketball guard Chad Baker-Mazara. As just about everyone knows, he was ejected on Saturday in the heartbreaking loss to Alabama for delivering an elbow on Chris Youngblood. Quite frankly, there's no defending his behavior.
Fast forward to Monday and the veteran playmaker took home Third-Team All-SEC honors for his tremendous work on the hardwood for the Tigers this campaign. Despite that, plenty of the focus surrounding his name was the unfortunate incident that took place in the biggest game of the season, one Auburn lost in overtime.
While Baker-Mazara posted an instagram story and quickly deleted it, he broke his silence after landing his all-conference nod. He 'retweeted' other honors for fellow Tigers stars, while he also posted an emotional message for his followers in Spanish.
Chad Baker-Mazara posted an emotional message following his troubling few days
"Thank you God for all the good and bad (things) that you've put in my path," Baker-Mazara said online. "I know that without these battles I wouldn't be in the position that you've put me in!
The bad things Baker-Mazara is eluding too surely includes what happened over the weekend. From the moment he made contact with Youngblood, people have been begging for him to be suspended for at least one game. ESPN's Seth Greenberg even called for Bruce Pearl to sit him for the SEC Tournament.
No one knows if that's going to happen or not, but that door hasn't been closed. At the end of the day, Baker-Mazara needs to control his emotions and not let them get the best of him. Johni Broome, in the hunt to win National Player of the Year, has asked CBM to learn from his mistakes too.
It's all on Baker-Mazara to show maturity and not put his team in difficult spots. Had he been on the floor for the rest of the contest against Alabama, perhaps the Tigers would still be celebrating a win. Instead, a loss was recorded and now Auburn may have kissed the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament goodbye. Baker-Mazara can't keep hurting his team like this, plain and simple.